RI County ‘multiplier’ is announced

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Staff report | Wednesday, November 15, 2006 1:08 AM CST | () comments

Rock Island County has been issued a tentative property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, said Brian Hamer, director of the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The property assessment equalization factor, often called the “multiplier,” is the method used to achieve uniform property assessments among counties as required by law. The equalization is particularly important because some of the state’s 6,600 local taxing districts overlap into two or more counties (such as school, community college and fire protection districts). If there were no equalization among counties, substantial inequities among taxpayers with comparable properties would result.

State law requires property in Illinois to be assessed at one-third of its market value. Farm property is assessed differently, with farm home sites and dwellings subject to regular assessing and equalization procedures, but with farmland and farm buildings assessed according to standards based on productivity.

The equalization factor is determined annually for each county by comparing the sales price of individual properties sold over the past three years with the assessed value placed on those properties by the county supervisor of assessments/county assessor.

If the three-year average level of assessment is one-third of market value, the equalization factor is one (1.0000). If the average level of assessment is greater than one-third of market value, the equalization factor will be less than one. And if the average level of assessment is less than one-third of market value, the equalization factor will be greater than one.

Assessments in Rock Island County are at 33.17 percent of market value, based on the sale of properties during 2003-2005.

The equalization factor being assigned is for 2006 taxes, which are payable in 2007.

Last year’s equalization factor for the county was 1.0000 as well.

A change in the equalization factor does not mean total property tax bills will increase or decrease. Tax bills are determined by local taxing bodies when they request money each year to provide services to their citizens.